Page:Reflections on the decline of science in England - Babbage - 1830.pdf/232

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CONCLUSION.

remarkable difference in the acuteness of his bodily faculties, either of his hearing, his sight, or of his sense of smell, from those of other persons who possessed them in a good degree. He never showed me an almost microscopic wire, which was visible to his, and invisible to my own. eye: even in the beautiful experiments he made relative to sounds inaudible to certain ears, he never produced a tone which was unheard by mine, although sensible to his ear; and I believe this will be found to have been the case by most of those whose minds had been much accustomed to experimental inquiries, and who possessed their faculties unimpaired by illness or by age.

It was a much more valuable property on which the success of such inquiries depended. It arose from the perfect attention which he could command, and the minute precision with which he examined every object. A striking illustration of the fact that an object is frequently not seen, from not knowing how to see it, rather than from any defect in the organ of vision, occurred to me some years since, when on a visit at Slough. Conversing with Mr. Herschel on

    was, the dots on the declination circle of his equatorial; but, in this instance, Dr. Wollaston did not attempt to teach me how to see them.